The Louisiana-shot independent film "Beasts of the Southern Wild" has already won heaps of praise, a distribution deal and a $10,000 grant for first-time director Benh Zeitlin since premiering last week at this year's Sundance Film Festival. On Saturday night (Jan 28), it added perhaps its most prestigious honor.

Zeitlin's film, a fantastical tale of a girl named Hushpuppy living with her dying father along the Louisiana coast, won the festival's grand jury prize for drama.

"This project was such a runt, this sort of messy-hair, dirty, wild child, and we just have been taken care of and just eased along until we were ready to stand up on our own," the 29-year-old, New Orleans-based Zeitlin told the Associated Press after the awards ceremony Saturday night. "It's just great that it happened here. This is the right place for the world to meet the film."

In accepting the prize at the Park City, Utah, event," Zeitlin also said he hopes his film stands as a message to producers to let directors be directors.

"We had more freedom to make this film than any other first time filmmakers have had in America," he said. "I hope this movie is a flag that goes up to producers and everyone to allow directors to explore the world creatively and go to the bottom of the earth. It's great we could be as wild as we could be."

The film also won the cinematography prize for Ben Richardson.

"Beasts of the Southern Wild" director Benh Zeitlin

Fox Searchlight acquired "Beasts of the Southern Wild" soon after its Sundance premiere last week, in what has been described as a bidding war with other studios. Details on the distribution plan -- which are expected to involve a 2012 release -- have yet to be announced.

Other notable winners at Saturday night's awards ceremony included:

"The House I Live In"-- about the impact of the war on drugs in America's poor communities -- which won the grand jury prize in the documentary category; and

"The Surrogate," which stars John Hawkes and Helen Hunt in a story about a man on an iron lung who decides to lose his virginity with the assistance of a professional sex surrogate. It won the audience award for drama as well as the jury prize for acting ensemble.